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The temperature in Nelspruit must have reached 40 degrees centigrade today, and the humidity was extreme...and unbearable.
But the very welcome rainstorm on the way home saw the temperature drop dramatically, and pleasurably.
Then, unexpectedly, sunshine, as we ascended the escarpment from the Lowveld up to Waterval Boven.
I lay in the hammock reading but not for long...it was too chilly. And the mosquitoes were on a search & destroy mission.

Saturday

It's a muggy Saturday afternoon, I'm wearing shorts and slip slops, even so I'm hot and perspiring. I'm on my way to Nelspruit, 93km away, to have lunch with a friend at a restaurant overlooking the botanical gardens. The bushveld is lush after all the rain. It's a beautiful afternoon.

Breakfast at Wimpy at the famous Hall's Gateway on the N4. I left Waterval Boven at 06h45 and have flown down the road to here, making notes all the way. Sitting here I've no doubt I'm in the Lowveld: it's pleasantly humid, temperatures are going to reach a very pleasant 32 degrees Celcius despite the autumn solstice four days ago, lush vegetation and abundant, exotic bird life.

From here, with Bongani Tshabalala of Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency, I'll head through Nelspruit and on towards Mozambique... unwrapping delights all along the way. I could not think of a better way than to spend this magnificently sunny autumnal Thursday.

Morning has broken

Sabi River Sun, Hazeyview: Mornimg has indeed broken, and it's a magnificent one... when your heart wants to leap right out of your chest at the sheer joy of being alive.

I'm leaving here for Nelspruit and a day of work, meetings and researching the book there. Then hopefully on to home tonight, where there is chest tightening amount of work to catch up on.

The magnificent Lowveld....

Heading for Maputo

It's sounds a bit confusing, but my first step towards Maputo where I'll spend tomorrow night is a flight - right now - from Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport outside Nelspruit to Jozi! It's a magnificent bushveld airport in a pristine condition and with, wait for it, a thatch roof.

Louis has just dropped me off. It's a quick half hour flight to Jozi, where I'll spend a night in a hotel at OR Tambo.

Excuse the photo, but it was taken in a real rush at the top of the stairs.

I'm a guest of the 'N4 people' Trans African Concessions (TRAC). Looking forward...!

Coffee time... take-it-all-in time

Seattle coffee shop, Menlyn: I made the mistake of taking to the road today, which I presume was the tail-end of the Innibos arts festival in Nelspruit. It took me three and a half hours to get to Pretoria.

Along the way I stopped at Millys to put in fuel. There was an MP-registration vehicle at the pump in front of me. When the attendant took the pump spout out of his tank some petrol overflowed down the side of his car.

The driver erupted, started screaming at the attendant in the worst possible language & then got aggressive, pushing him around because the "f**king idiot spilt petrol on his car".

My mouth hung open at the raw agression, nay hatred (and consequent humility) directed at another human being who made a miniscule 'mistake' during the course of probably one of the busiest days in the year at Millys.

And this from someone most likely on his way back from the festival weekend (he then headed in the Witbank direction with his wife). I'd hate to see him in peak hour on a Friday afternoon ... other's lives would be at serious risk.

I had many hours - in sometimes bumper-to-bumper traffic - to let this gruesome scenario play itself over and over in my mind... ironically sowing poison and hatred in me.

Firstly I berated myself for having not done something, for having not said something while this played itself on a very busy, public stage. In all honesty I believe my instinct warned me that I was at phsical risk, that I could have sparked off a situation that would also have put the attendant at further serious risk (he also instintively backed down), never mind myself.

The attendant was working another pump when about 15 minutes later I left. I stopped next to him and all I managed was an "Are you okay?" and a clumsy "Never ever let someone like that get you down buddy," before driving off. At least I had the satisfaction of his beautiful, relieved smile.

On the road, refusing to drive faster than 100 (no more rushing, 'going nowhere fast' for me I promised myself once I ejected myself from the rat race - I choose to live in The Now, in This Moment, every second of every day, even when on the road. The destination is essentially irrelevant) while the road hogs roared past (despite the petrol price) I found that as part of my personal healing and choice to live fully as a free human being, I had to forgive myself.

To forgive for being hard on myself, also for the hatred I'd allowed to grow in me. Hatred breeds hatred ... but only if you allow it to. I had to also forgive the perpetrator... we can never ever allow ourselves to judge ANYONE no matter what they have done (certainly be angry!). Only God knows the hearts of men... and their reasons (mostly extremely deep-seated in hurt) for their actions.

In forgiving I was able to free and release myself, and to dissolve my hatred. Only then was I able to enjoy the magnificent winter sky above and the khaki veld on either side.

And I knew, more than ever before, that our lives on this planet are about love and NOTHING else. Consequently I resolve to be kinder, more generous and compassionate. I resolve to love much more. Especially strangers. By one step, one smile and one kind word at a time I intend to make my world a better place.

Just love... .

(Posted on my Nokia E90 Communicator from a Seattle coffee shop table, inspired by a rich, 'tall mocha'. Coffee has the power to change the world!)

Kaapsehoop...

I'm back at home after over two and a half intense weeks of travelling, of learning, and of observing along some of our country's finest coastlines... most of the time I've been in awe. In awe of the beauty, of the fragility, of its uniquenes. But that awe was tinged with a sense of devastation.. I'm devasttaed at much of our coastline is taken for granted.

But tonight I'm overjoyed to be sitting eating pizza in front of the roaring fire at Salvador's in the hamlet of Kaapsehoop. It's just short of 50 km from Waterval-Boven, in the mountains just before Nelspruit.

I'm here with my mother (who's visiting from the UK) and her best friend Carol. Before getting to Kaapsehoop we drove into the Berlin forest to stare over the edge of the escarpment, to breathe in the chilly winter air as the sun set into the western mountains.

South Africa's changing climate

Dramatic, unseasonal rainstorms this afternoon (these pics were taken between Waterval-Onder and Nelspruit) ushered in an icy cold front tonight.

 

"Another world exists somewhere beyond the global politicking of super-powers and petrostates. This is the place where a solitary bee continues to pollinate the pale, demure flower of an orchid near Darling, or where the limey coral skeleton hosts its colourful algae on a Sodwana reef. These plants and animals - many of them unique to the [southern African] region - continue to do what their ancestors have done for millions of years. Yet the world is shifting its shape around them."

 

- Leonie S Joubert in 'Scorched: South Africa's changing climate' (Wits University Press: 2006)

Pointsettias are flowering...

What I appreciate most about where I live, is that my backyard - the place where I play - now encompasses hundreds and hundreds of square kilometers.

 

One of my favourite, most peaceful and inspiring places in this backyard, is my friend - and artist - Harem's (www.harem.co.za) 'farm' in the very creative heart of the forest between Nelspruit and Kaapsehoop. 

 

He lives here with Ghandi, his great dane, and a stunning, sweeping 180 degree view of the Barbeton valley.

 

Right now, on his 'farm' and in stark contrast to the winter drabness, the pointsettias are flowering. They caused my jaw to drop at their unexpected, passionate beauty.

 

Nelspruit sunrise

Mpumalanga - 'place of the rising sun'